War in the Middle East. How big is that going to get? There’s the rub.
First off there’s a lot of misinformation. Social media is a really really really bad source of information. There are plenty of other bad sources of information. There’s a rule of thumb: give a story 24 hours and see how it checks out.
Right now it’s a conflict between Hamas and Israel. There’s confirmed Iran involvement in the planning so that’s a concern. There are plenty of countries on the periphery with skin the game. For example Saudi Arabia has had a low grade conflict with Iran for sometime. They’d love for someone else to do their dirty work. Memories in that part of the of the world are long and bitter.
Much depends on how Israel deals with the situation. Netanyahu is not the best guy to be a helm of Israel at this time -in my humble opinion. I don’t think diplomacy and restraint are in the cards. If a full on occupation of the Gaza Strip is in the works it’s going to get much worse.
There are some things that are different from other Middle Eastern conflicts. In the past the Soviet Union would pour a lot of weapons into the area. That’s not going to happen this time as the Russians don’t have them to spare.
So what’s a person far the conflict zone supposed to do? First of all, don’t panic and don’t make major decisions out of fear. Certainly don’t make major decisions from what you hear on social media. It comes down to the basics. There may be disruptions in International fuel supplies. As the northern hemisphere goes into its heating season that’s an issue. Food prices will become more volatile. That’s where having a decent amount of food storage can be useful.
The thing I’ll be watching is the ground game. Hamas rockets and retaliatory air strikes won’t be the deciding factor. War in that part of the world has always involved real estate. That’s what really motivates people. Let’s see what the ground troops do and then you can decide to panic or not.
Actually, panicking is never the right response. While there’s precious little the average Joe can do to influence events, how you react to those events is in your control.
-Sixbears
And there is that little thing about how almost half of the Middle East is pretty vocal bout "The Great Satan" as they refer to America.
ReplyDeleteAnd that our own Border Patrol has been informing us how literally thousands of middle eastern, Chinese and otherwise NOT South American-Mexican "Undocumented Immigrants" have been swarming our boarder over the past two years. Seems from reports they are military aged males, almost NO Women or Children in the flow.
Could get interesting in America, as in Chinese curse.
Of course, it does make sense for draft age males to get the heck out of the Middle East. Unfortunately smart people getting out of trouble and bad people looking for trouble kinda look the same.
DeleteFor myself , we're converting all bank savings into PM's and other preps. The horizon does not bode well , prepare.
ReplyDeleteMoney's an illusion anyway. Might as well get useful things while people still take that stuff.
DeleteAt least they call us "Great" 80) When in doubt run around scream and shout... Hamas most likely used up it's missile and rocket stock pile the first few minutes of the attack, and if I'm not mistaken the Saudi's aren't really friendly with the Israelis' either? The Vietnamese used to blow rocks and stones into the air to take down 111's. This sort of looks like a David Goliath thing. Who knows?
ReplyDeleteWhat you can be sure of is that regular people are going to do most of the suffering.
DeleteCivilians always get the short end of the stick. Always.
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